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Thursday, August 11, 2016

Iran-Backed Rebels Use Hospitals as Human Shields - Con Coughlin

by Con Coughlin

Investigators found that at the time of the attack, Houthi rebels were occupying the hospital, making it a legitimate target.

"While the West urges the Saudi-led coalition to use all means
possible to avoid civilian casualties, we must also be aware of the
tactics the Iranian-backed rebels are using as part of a deliberate
policy to discredit the coalition war effort." — Senior Western
official.

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels are using hospitals as military command
posts, thereby deliberately putting the lives of innocent civilians at
risk, according to a new report into Yemen's long-running civil war.

Hostilities in the Yemeni conflict resumed at the weekend following
the collapse of peace talks in Kuwait. The talks came after Houthi
fighters, who are backed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards,
rejected a U.N.-sponsored peace plan and announced the establishment of a
10-member governing body to run the country.

Within hours of the peace talks ending, the Saudi-led military
coalition, which is backed by both the U.S. and Britain, had resumed air
strikes against Houthi rebel positions in the Yemeni capital, Sana'a.
Initial reports said that at least 21 people, the majority of them
civilians, had been killed, including a number of workers in a potato
chip factory in Sana'a. In addition, the international airport at Sana'a
was shut down by the airstrikes after Saudi coalition officials
notified airlines that incoming flights would be barred for 72 hours.

A factory in Sana'a, Yemen, burns after an airstrike on August 9, 2016. (Image source: Al Jazeera video screenshot)

It is the first time in five months that Sana'a has been bombed by
warplanes from the coalition, which also includes the United Arab
Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, Sudan and other Middle East countries.

Human rights groups, which have repeatedly raised concerns about the
high number of civilian casualties, will be particularly concerned by
the resumption of hostilities. The U.S.-backed Saudi coalition is
seeking to restore the democratically-elected government of President
Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, who was forced to flee Sana'a in February by
Houthi rebels. The Houthis are being supported by elite units from
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). More than 6,000 people
have been killed in the civil war, including around 3,000 civilians.

Both sides in the conflict have been accused of causing unnecessary
civilian casualties, with the Saudis, who have suffered significant
casualties of their own, being singled out for particular censure over the way they have conducted coalition air strikes.

But an investigation conducted by coalition officials into claims
that Saudi warplanes have directly targeted civilians found that the air
strikes had been justified, because the Iranian-backed rebels had been
using civilian institutions, such as hospitals, as command posts to
launch attacks against coalition forces and their allies.

A report
issued earlier this week by the coalition's Joint Incidents Assessment
Team (JIAT) refuted earlier claims by the French-based charity, Doctors
Without Borders, that the Saudi coalition had deliberately caused
civilian deaths by bombing Haiden Hospital in Yemen's Saada province.
Instead, investigators found that at the time of the attack, Houthi
rebels were occupying the hospital, making it a legitimate target.

In all, JIAT investigated eight high-profile bombings where the UN or
humanitarian organisations have accused the coalition of killing
civilians or bombing hospitals and humanitarian structures. In each
case, it concluded that all "safety procedures implemented by coalition
forces adhered to international humanitarian law."

The revelation that Iranian-backed Houthi rebels are deliberately
using civilian institutions for their war effort inevitably will draw
comparisons with the tactics used by other radical Islamist groups such
Hamas, which regularly uses institutions such as hospitals to launch
attacks against Israel.

"It is clear that the tactics used by the Houthis, where they are
using places like hospitals for their military campaign, has contributed
significantly to the heavy civilian death toll," said a senior Western
official. "While the West urges the Saudi-led coalition to use all means
possible to avoid civilian casualties, we must also be aware of the
tactics the Iranian-backed rebels are using as part of a deliberate
policy to discredit the coalition war effort."

Con Coughlin is the defence and foreign affairs editor of London's Daily Telegraph.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8666/yemen-human-shields Follow Middle East and Terrorism on TwitterCopyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.